Designing and Evaluating the Campus Organ Donor Project

The researchers in this study report on the effectiveness of a health campaign called the Campus Organ Donor Project. The campaign consisted of two parts: a media component and a face-to-face component. The media campaign involved a public service announcement that focused on potential knowledge gaps within the target audience (i.e., college students). The public service announcement took a positive and light approach, using college-aged actors. The face-to-face component involved a presentation that included an organ procurement organization representative and a college-aged member of a donor family. College students exposed to both parts of the campaign reported more knowledge about organ donation and were more likely to sign an organ donor consent form than college students at a different institution who were not exposed to either component of the campaign (who served as the control group).